Objective. To review the extant literature on the prevalence of overweight and obesity in adolescents (10–19 years old) of both sexes. Design. The search was carried out using Medline and Scopus considering articles published from the establishment of the databanks until June 7, 2012. Data on the prevalence of children being overweight and obese from the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) website was also reviewed. Only original articles and one National Health Report were considered. Forty studies met the inclusion criteria. Results. Twenty-five of these studies were nationally representative, and ten countries were represented only by regional data. Conclusions. The prevalence of overweight and obesity among adolescents worldwide is high, and obesity is higher among boys. The IOTF criterion is the most frequently used method to classify adolescents as overweighed or obese in public health research. 1. Introduction The prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents has widely increased worldwide [1, 2], making it one of the most common chronic disorders in this age group and in adulthood. The use of body mass index (BMI) for age to define being overweight and obese in children and adolescents is well established for both clinical and public health applications, because of their feasibility under clinical settings and in epidemiological studies [3, 4]. In children and adolescents, the natural increases in BMI that occur with age necessitate the use of age-sex-specific thresholds. The most widely used growth charts are the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC-2000) [5], the International Task Force (IOTF) [6], and the 2007 growth references for 5 to 19 year olds produced by the World Health Organization (WHO-2007) [7]. The CDC-2000 growth charts were developed to evaluate the nutritional status of US children and were originated from five cross-sectional representative surveys carried out in the US between 1963 and 1994. These growth charts are routinely applied to identify children and adolescents with a BMI greater than the 85th or 95th percentiles following the advice of the US Expert Committee on Childhood Obesity [8]. However, the appropriateness of an American dataset for defining overweight in young people from other countries is questionable [9]. The IOTF reference also uses age-sex-specific BMI percentiles, and overweight and obesity definition corresponds to an adult BMI of 25 and 30？kg/m2, respectively, and reflects values in children tracking to overweight and obesity in adults [6]. This reference is based
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